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British pronunciation: then vs now

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mungouk 210

mungouk 210

There has been some discussion here of the (now very outdated) British "received pronunciation".

I just enjoyed watching a documentary which might be of interest to teachers, and/or which you might want to use as stimulus material in class if you want to discuss accents or class structure in the UK.

Timeshift is an acclaimed British social history documentary series produced by the BBC. This particular programme, "Pay Attention Britain!" is about how the WWII propaganda unit became the Central Office of Information, which went on to produce "public information films" which many of my fellow brits will remember ("Charlie says...", "Green Cross Code", etc.)

For those curious about Received Pronunciation, and their students, the first 15-20 mins will be of particular interest since they switch between archaic (black and white footage) and modern pronunciation.

As a counter example in the programme, design critic and posh bloke Peter York (in the red/white striped shirt) demonstrates that even 12 years ago, there were still isolated upper class people speaking as if they were related to the royal family. 😜